The inventive concepts described herein relate to a semiconductor device, and more particularly, relate to a memory controller and an operating method thereof.
A semiconductor memory device is a memory device which is fabricated using semiconductors such as silicon (Si), germanium (Ge), gallium arsenide (GaAs), indium phosphide (InP), and so on. Semiconductor memory devices are classified into volatile memory devices and nonvolatile memory devices.
The volatile memory devices may lose stored contents at power-off. The volatile memory devices include a static RAM (SRAM), a dynamic RAM (DRAM), a synchronous DRAM (SDRAM), and the like. The nonvolatile memory devices may retain stored contents even at power-off. The nonvolatile memory devices include a read only memory (ROM), a programmable ROM (PROM), an electrically programmable ROM (EPROM), an electrically erasable and programmable ROM (EEPROM), a flash memory device, a phase-change RAM (PRAM), a magnetic RAM (MRAM), a resistive RAM (RRAM), a ferroelectric RAM (FRAM), and so on.
A semiconductor memory may be used together with a memory controller, which is configured to control the semiconductor memory. The memory controller may be configured to control read, program, erase and background operations of the semiconductor memory. The memory controller may have various operating methods for controlling the semiconductor memory to improve an operating performance of the semiconductor memory.